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338

Title “Pong Bong,” review of a performance by David Tudor and the Audio-Visual Group, The Village Voice
Maker Nancy K. Siff
Date 15 April 1959
Type press clipping
Location Getty Research Institute, David Tudor Papers, 980039, box 62, folder 15

This ambivalent reviewer struggles to make sense of the cacophony of sights and sounds offered in a concert by the New York Audio-Visual Group, which was formed by Al Hansen and Dick Higgins in 1959 in the wake of their participation in John Cage’s experimental composition course at the New School. The author questions whether this concert of “advanced music” is either music or advanced; yet her vivid, engaging descriptions of the evening’s activities and complimentary references to David Tudor’s musicianship contradict the review’s mocking tone.

Cite

Siff, Nancy K. “Pong Bong,” review of a performance by David Tudor and the Audio-Visual Group, The Village Voice, 15 April 1959. Getty Research Institute, David Tudor Papers, 980039, box 62, folder 15. In The Scores Project: Experimental Notation in Music, Art, Poetry, and Dance, 1950–1975, ed. Michael Gallope, Natilee Harren, and John Hicks. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2025. https://www.getty.edu/publications/scores/object-index/338/.